North Gilmore Road, the road in front of the new Fairfield Freshman School, to be upgraded

Before the end of the month, anyone who regularly travels North Gilmore Road will need to find a new route for a few weeks.

North Gilmore Road will eventually be closed to through traffic for a road widening project, but first a storm sewer that crosses Holden Boulevard needs to be replaced, according to Fairfield City Engineer Ben Mann.

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“The existing storm sewer is shallow and undersized, and we’re going to obviously add more pavement and curb, so there are about 3,000 feet of storm sewer on this project,” he said.

North Gilmore Road, from Holden Boulevard to Symmes Road, will be completely closed to traffic in about one to two weeks, Mann said. The nearly $1.5 million project will be performed by Eagle Bridge Company to widen North Gilmore to three lanes between Holden and Busway, making grade improvements at the railroad tracks, and adding a paved shoulder to the two-lane section between the railroad tracks and Symmes Road.

Mann said the center turn lanes would be important not only for the new Fairfield Freshman School, but also “for the businesses, such as Fox Towing, along that stretch (for big vehicles).” “The existing narrow road is really a rural type road,” he said. “There’s hardly any shoulder and drop offs on the side. So we’ll upgrade it to a curbed road. It will be much more of an urban/suburban-type road. It will be much safer.”

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The project also includes relocating utility poles and removal of some trees. On Monday, Mann said he’ll ask City Council to add the installation of the LED street lights to the project.

“It will be much safer and open when lit up,” Mann said.

Before the closure, portable electronic message boards will be posted to communicate the upcoming changes in traffic patterns. A detour will be posted directing traffic around the construction site via Symmes Road to Bilstein Boulevard/Holden Boulevard.

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